Friday, December 26, 2008

Get yourself down to McGruder's tomorrow night to celebrate the Mantua Festival's xmas bash - pretty much a recreation of the three-day event in one night. I'll be spinning some cheerful xmas records with the Wobble crew, and can't wait for what should surely be the highlight of the evening, a set from the man himself Rustie. If you're suffering from tinselitis at this stage, come and join us on Saturday night for a hair of the dog.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Here it is, my final mix for the year. I lashed it together in a frenzy yesterday, and you can probably tell in parts. As usual, its not made up exclusively of tracks from the last year, so expect one or two older ones among the new. Either way, enjoy the mix, forgive the leaky faders, the sometimes wobbly mixage, and most of all the lame scratches I recorded by accident. Otherwise some great tunes from some of my favourite artists, guaranteed to put some sway and skank into however it is you celebrate the solstice and the new year. Ta!

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Up North happenings tonight also, with the Crilli crew celebrating their 3rd birthday. The man Detwist will be one to check if you're about - he also very kindly threw up a mix of his favourites from the last year and beyond. Download below..

Friday, December 19, 2008

DubCulture bring the deep and the heavy to The People's Republic Of Cork tonight, all in celebration of the holiday season and the label launch. The usual reprobates will be in effect, but once again I won't be able to make it, busy as I am upsetting people and starting fires. Should be great if the reports on last weeks do are anything to go by....

If you aren't down south and are in the Dublin area tonight, you are invited to attend Wobble and !Kaboogie's joint xmas party. Excpect all sorts from the residents, with a mix of laptoppery and spinnage.

Dublin pisses me off. I can't go out to a club these days without hearing very bad drum and bass, or even fucking breakcore. Why is this? In the case of d'n'b, its particularly disturbing - if I hear breakcore I can just leave and that's the end of that. A quick smoke outside and I can't even recall what permutation of Amen-clever clogism I've been assaulted with. But when its d'n'b its one of two things; in the case of the recent stuff, I get a dreary feeling equivalent to seeing an ex you once loved, now a crackhead on the 77 bus home. You feel for them but at the same time hope they won't recognise you. When its the old stuff (quality), I feel depressed in a different way - Its like exhuming a beautiful corpse, or looking at a photo of the dearly departed. It can lead to upset.

Those were the days. These are NOT

So, Dublin. Elsewhere in Ireland there seems to be more variety; Dublin promoters seem to book the same acts again and again - year after year. And so, what with the recession and the fact that the middle class are the only young people who seem to be able to afford to have any fun anymore (ah, the comfort of the safety net), there's been much talk in Smokeless Towers, for the first time in decades, about moving to The Big Smoke across the water - if there's any work there. Like everyone at the moment, they too have their own problems.

However, at least over there you can hop on a tube and catch a quality night like This. Night Slugs has the kind of line ups that I would kill to have over here on the regular. Kill I say. Have a listen to Lower End Spasm's Bok Bok and L-Vis for FACT and maybe your ears will know what I mean, even if nothing else makes sense. Lucky sods. I'm going to start my own night in the new year.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

"We have been getting some feedback that “UP DA RA” isoffensive to Irish Republicans. I want to clear this matter up.“Up DA RA” is a piece of satire. It Satirises armchairrepublicanism. It was written from the point of view of the type of eejit who is liable to have “Tiocfaidh ar la” tattooed on his arm while wearing a Manchester united Jersey. It was personally inspired by a gentleman I knew who spray painted C.I.R.A on a bus stop, believing that the acronym stood for “Constitutional Irish Republican Army”. The writing technique implemented in“UP DA RA” is known as “The unreliable Narrator”. This is a narrative mode used by the writer to best communicate the intended message. This unreliability canbe due to psychological instability, a powerful bias, a lack of knowledge, or even a deliberate attempt to deceive the reader or audience. Some lovely examples of this technique can be found in the song “Rednecks” by Randy Newman, or in the satirical piece “A modest proposal” by Johnathan Swift.

So if you listen to “UP DA RA” literally, without exploring its subtext then it is wide open for misinterpretation. As its author, I wrote the song for a 21st century audience who are very familiar with postmodern Irony. Also, any song whereby the narrator threatens to chase the Queen of England around a field with dog shit on the end of a golf club should generally be taken with a pinch of salt. For example, If you were walking down the road and a man who talks to himself and smells heavily of piss tells you that you can use old condoms as currency, would you then save all your used condoms and try and buy a jumper with them in River Island.?? Probably not, because the mans view of society is unreliable.

“Up DA RA” is intended to educate through the use of humour, because humour is a damn fine way to get your message across to someone without shoving your views down their throat. If it means even one armchair republican picking up a history book and actually understanding why they call themselves “Republican” then the song is a success. I personally find the level of ignorance and lack of knowledge amongst some people who call themselves republican to be offensive. It is offensive to the memory of the Irish men and women who gave their lives for basic civil rights. Armchair republicans attach themselves to a romantic image of the I.R.A brandishing Kalashnikovs as a way of making themselves look and feel tough, when it suits them. They will loudly state how they hate the brits yet have no problem supporting English football or more commonly, mimicking every aspect of British chav culture and absorbing it into their identity. I also get a bit annoyed with the student types who wear Che Guevara T-shirts without having any real interest in socialism. The T-shirts just look cool, that’s it. “UP DA RA” has received a positive response mostly, I take this as evidence that an awful lot of people are just as annoyed with armchair republicanism as I am, because its insincere, and insincerity is a particularly annoying human trait.

I support peaceful republicanism; I support all peaceful attempts to pursue justice where a community of any creed is downtrodden by an unfair and oppressive system. That includes Palestinians, the Travelling Community,and foreign nationals in Ireland. I am proud of my Irish history. My own grandfather was a member of the I.R.A in Tom Barry’s flying column during the war of independence and he took a bullet for it too. However... while I understand my ancestral history of oppression and cruelty I have no interest in hanging on to hatred of the oppressor. If a child is born today, of English blood in London, I refuse to hold him responsible for the actions of his ancestors before he was born. So to anyone who thinks that we are being disrespectful to Republicanism? Well then you may as well call Edward Norton a Racist for the character he portrayed in American History X"

Monday, December 15, 2008

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Tonight sees the official launch of Dubculture Records in Galway City, and the label's first release, 'Cavegirl' by RSD ( check the track above ) along with Crysis's 'Super Villain'.

In session tonight will be Crysis and Sub One back to back on the platters, with a live set of exclusive Irish dubs from Major Grave and Konspiracy in anticipation of the Full Irish Special Part Two ( coming soon ), with an 08 update on the mostly 07 tracks of the first mix . If yer fortunate enough to be way out west this weekend, drop down. Go with an empty stomach though; grub will be provided.

North of the border, the Nips as they are (affectionately?) known have been getting into a spot of bother; they've been joyriding (something which used to unofficially carry The Death Penalty) as well as waggling their weapons about. They were kind enough to film it (which landed them in botheration) but I'll be damned if I can find the footage.In the meantime, we'll have to do with a clip of our finest south of the border, as they tackle the scourge of antisocial driving.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

It was like Alan Partridge meets Hyacinth Bucket. Rejecting tickets to the eternal monument to all things plastic and furry - The Late Late Toy Show. Sure it's an institution. Getting to be a member of the audience for this holiest of holies requires a lot of waiting around.

It's a cross between Jury Duty selection and winning the Lotto - at least to those under 12 and the dewy eyed progress-obsessed 50-something baby boomers, for whom each new year brings innovations in technology the like of which they have never seen - probably because they stopped paying attention after the moon landings - and a further pat on the back to let them know how far we've come.Bejayzus, that auld hoor. its as if she went up to our Lord himself an' spat in his mush. Mother of God preserve us in these desperate times.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

As its that time of year, I think my seasonal gift will be to keep uploading and embedding mixes while not saying much about them. This one, put together by DJ Furious, is made up mostly of vocal tracks from Tunnel Vision along with various instrumentals - purely to remind us what the Eskiboy is capable of. In fact, isn't this what a mixtape should be?

Ben UFO is one of my favourite DJs; consistently choosing quality music to build great sets on Sub FM's Ruffage Sessions( Thursdays 8-10pm GMT ). Ben hasn't visited these shores in a while, but surely the time is ripe. On his last visit to Dublin he played a great set of UKG, Grime and Dubstep, providing an education of sorts to a Dublin audience for many of whom the route to Dubstep was without any real reference points to 2 Step or early Grime.

On this session from last week, he brings the Funky vibe to the table with tracks such as 'Yellowtail' from Geeneus' Volumes 1 EP, along with the House, Garage and new Dubstep tracks from talent like Brackles, along with absolute killers along the lines of 'Knife and Gun'.

It's selections like this( along with This One, This One.. and many others that made 2008 such a positive year - maybe not for everyone, but hasn't a lot of cream risen?

Friday, December 5, 2008

"Acroplane.org asked me about 6 months ago if I wanted to do an EP. We decided on Dec 1st and then I didnt think much more deeply about it until a week ago. I wanted to wait til the last minute before picking the tunes in case I wrote anything worthwile before the release. So, this week i started picking tracks and I couldnt resist putting as much music on there as possible. So instead of a 4/5 track EP its become an 11 track LP. I tried to get it to flow so it was listenable as one solid piece of music rather than just isolated tracks. Musically it's all quite similarly paced, sitting somewhere between dub, acid and jungle with plenty of bass. It's nice to finally have picked out some tunes to present properly to people rather than the usual method of just giving random bundles of tunes bit by bit. I hope people enjoy it as much as I do."

Czech net label Amenorea have just released Amenorea Dubs Volume 2, available from their site for free download. Grab it HERE.

Our own 2Bit, who this week fought the law(and he won) features in this net-only release with the Dublinese-titled 1 Fer Two. Lots of tasty sounds from the Bit lately; good to hear his 'Ancient Archive' getting play from Dusk + Blackdown on Rinse recently.Visit him on his Myspace for some newly uploaded beauties, and check 1 Fer Two below.

A little footage from the annual graffiti jam in Drogheda, where every year writers faithfully come and repaint the bridge. The longest running outdoor graffiti event in Europe(15 years now), thanks to TDA Klan.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

I just re-uploaded this labour of love I did in 2006, as the good old zshare links seem to be fecked. I'll probably have to re-up some of the older mixes over the next while - if you need any tracklisting information just shout me here. As for this mix, there's no tracklist, but if any of the featured records / breaks is unfamiliar and you'd like to know more, I'll gladly oblige. Sounds of the xmas party.

December already...for me, not a great month, and this will be reflected here on this blog. Its a time of year when I have to put gigging on hold, and work a solid month in my glamorous day / night job. The most I'll probably manage myself is to throw a monthly mix up here, but that's it. Here's what some of the rest of you can look forward to between now and the Darkness.

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Just in time to keep things regular on the podcasts, here's my mix for November.I seem to be getting very slack on keeping these things rolling lately..anyway, I held out for the dubculture test pressings and threw the mix down today so forgive the messiness.

Friday, November 28, 2008

Here's last saturday's radio show from DJ PCP on Raidio Na Life, starting off with a selection from the man himself(while me and Grizzle were battling through the traffic to get there in time!), followed by a mix of old and new from myself as usual. If you would like to listen in/download, see below.

Earlier this week, us weed heads heard the news that cannabis may actually improve memory, pointing to a possible use in the future as a medication for sufferers of Alzheimer's. Today, more evidence for its use throughout human history was unearthed.

"Researchers say they have located the world's oldest stash of marijuana, in a tomb in a remote part of China.

The cache of cannabis is about 2,700 years old and was clearly "cultivated for psychoactive purposes," rather than as fibre for clothing or as food, says a research paper in the Journal of Experimental Botany...."